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truly the soul, while still in the flesh, to the enjoyment of the heavenly lights and again gives eyes to its intelligible senses by the divine light of grace, and later it will also clothe the body itself with glory”. And again: “Of what good things and mysteries the souls of Christians are able to partake here, becomes manifest only to the one who has received it by experience with the eyes of the soul; but in the resurrection it is possible to obtain such things with the body itself, both to see them and, as it were, to hold them, whenever it also becomes spirit”. (p. 242) Has it not become manifest that the divine light is one and the same, both that which was seen by the apostles on Tabor and that which is now seen within by purified souls, and the substance of the eternal good things to come? For this reason also the great Basil said that the light that shone on Tabor at the transfiguration of the Lord was a prelude of the glory of Christ at the second coming, who elsewhere clearly says that “a certain divine light shone through as if through glassy membranes, that is, through the flesh of the Lord which is from us, His divine power shining through to those who have the eyes of their heart purified”. Is this not that light, which shone more brightly on Tabor, so as to become perceptible even to the eyes of the body, as He willed, which was also seen through it by all those who then had a purified heart, flashing forth dreadfully from the adorable body as from some disk and illuminating their heart? With these may we also be found, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord”. For it is good, since the great one there prayed for this, for us believers also to pray for it together.

But then indeed the great light, having come to us in the flesh, was seen by the purified shining thus from that flesh; but now how it is seen by them and how it is possible to see it, go, if you desire, and learn from those who see; from whom I also, having inquired, believed, to use the words of David, therefore I have spoken; and one must also add that of the apostle: “we also believe, and therefore we also speak”. The one who has renounced the possession of money and the glory of men and the pleasure of bodies for the sake of the evangelical life, and who has confirmed this renunciation through submission to those advanced in the life according to Christ, sees the dispassionate and sacred and divine love being rekindled more intensely within himself and (p. 244) he supernaturally longs for God and the supramundane union with Him. Having been completely captured, therefore, by this love, he is persuaded to search through and examine the bodily energies and the powers of the soul, if somewhere he might chance upon that through which he might attain communion with God; as he therefore finds the irrational ones to be completely so, or is initiated by inquiring of the experienced, and the actions that, though with reason, yet incline for a little while toward sensible things, and opinion and the discursive intellect, although they are rational powers, are yet not unyoked from the storehouse of the senses, that is, from fantasy, and are moreover performed through the psychic spirit as an instrument, intelligently understanding what the apostle also declared, that “the psychic man does not receive the things of the Spirit”, he seeks the life that is above these things and truly noetic and unmixed with the things below, hearing also the divine words of the wise Nilus saying: “even if the nous comes to be above the contemplation of corporeal things, it has not yet completely beheld the place of God; for it is able to be in the knowledge of thoughts and to be diversified by it”; and again, “even when the nous is in bare thoughts, it is far from God”.

And having also learned from the great Dionysius and the most eminent Maximus, “that our nous has on the one hand the power to think, through which it sees intelligible things, and on the other hand the union which surpasses the nature of the nous, through which it is joined to the things beyond itself”, he seeks this very highest part of what is in us, the only perfect and unified and in every way indivisible part of us, which both the convolutions of the discursive intellect, in which also the certainties of the sciences are held, proceeding by synthesis and division almost after the manner of creeping animals, it both defines and unifies, since it is the form of forms. For even if towards them

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ἀληθείᾳ ψυχήν, ἐν σαρκί οὖσαν ἔτι, εἰς τήν τῶν οὐρανίων φώτων ἀπόλαυσιν καί τά νοερά αὐτῆς αἰσθητήρια τῷ θείῳ πάλιν φωτί τῆς χάριτος ὀμματοῖ, ὕστερον δέ καί αὐτῷ σώματι περιβαλεῖ τῇ δόξῃ». Καί πάλιν˙ «οἵων ἀγαθῶν καί μυστηρίων ψυχαί χριστιανῶν ἐνταῦθα κοινωνεῖν δύνανται, τῷ πείρᾳ παραλαβόντι μόνῳ τοῖς τῆς ψυχῆς ὀφθαλμοῖς καταφανές γίνεται˙ ἐν δέ τῇ ἀναστάσει καί αὐτῷ τῷ σώματι τοιούτων πάρεστι τυχεῖν, βλέπειν τε αὐτά καί οἱονεί κρατεῖν, ὁπόταν καί αὐτό πνεῦμα γένηται». (σελ. 242) Ἆρ᾿ οὐ γέγονε καταφανές ὡς ἕν καί τό αὐτό ἐστι τό θεῖον φῶς, τό τε τοῖς ἀποστόλοις ἐν Θαβώρ ἑωραμένον καί ταῖς κεκαθαρμέναις νῦν ἐνορώμενον ψυχαῖς καί ἡ τῶν μελλόντων αἰωνίων ἀγαθῶν ὑπόστασις; ∆ιό καί ὁ μέγας Βασίλειος προοίμιον εἶπε τῆς ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ παρουσίᾳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ δόξης τό ἐν Θαβωρίῳ λάμψαν ἐν τῇ μεταμορφώσει τοῦ Κυρίου φῶς, ὅς ἀλλαχοῦ φησι σαφῶς ὅτι «διαφαίνετο οἷόν τι φῶς θεῖον διά ὑελίνων ὑμένων, τουτέστι διά τῆς ἐξ ἡμῶν σαρκός τοῦ Κυρίου, ἡ θεία δύναμις αὐτοῦ διαυγάζουσα τοῖς ἔχουσι τούς ὀφθαλμούς τῆς καρδίας κεκαθαρμένους». Ἆρ᾿ οὐ τοῦτό ἐστιν ἐκεῖνο, τό φανότερον ἐν Θαβωρίῳ διαυγάσαν, ὡς καί ὀφθαλμοῖς σώματος ληπτόν γενέσθαι, ὡς ἠθέλησεν, ὅ καί τοῖς τήν καρδίαν ἔχουσι τότε κεκαθαρμένην πᾶσι δι᾿ αὐτῆς ἐβλέπετο, τοῦ προσκυνητοῦ σώματος ὡς ἀπό δίσκου τινός φρικτῶς ἐξαστράπτον καί τήν καρδίαν αὐτῶν περιαστράπτον; Μετά τούτων εἴθε καί ἡμεῖς εὑρθείημεν, ἀνακεκαλυμένῳ προσώπῳ τήν δόξαν Κυρίου κατοπτριζόμενοι». Καλόν γάρ, ἐπευξαμένῳ τοῦτο ἐκεῖ τῷ μεγάλῳ, καί ἡμᾶς συνεύξασθαι τούς πιστεύοντας.

Ἀλλά τότε μέν ἐν σαρκί τό μέγα φῶς ἐπιδημῆσαν πρός ἡμᾶς, οὕτω φαῖνον ἀπό τῆς σαρκός ἐκείνης τοῖς κεκαθαρμένοις ἑωρᾶτο˙ νῦν δέ πῶς αὐτοῖς ὁρᾶται καί πῶς ἔνεστιν ἰδεῖν αὐτό, πορευθείς, εἰ ποθεῖς, μάθε παρά τῶν ὁρώντων˙ ὧν κἀγώ πυθόμενος ἐπίστευσα, τό τοῦ ∆αβίδ εἰπεῖν, διό ἐλάλησα˙ δεῖ δέ καί προσθεῖναι τό τοῦ ἀποστόλου˙ «καί ἡμεῖς πιστεύομεν, διό καί λαλοῦμεν». Ὁ τῇ τῶν χρημάτων κτήσει καί τῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων δόξῃ καί τῇ τῶν σωμάτων ἡδονῇ διά τήν εὐαγγελικήν ἀποταξάμενος ζωήν καί δι᾿ ὑποταγῆς τῶν ἐν τῇ κατά Χριστόν ἡλικίᾳ προηκόντων τήν ἀποταγήν ταύτην βεβαιώσας, ὁρᾷ ἐν ἑαυτῷ σφοδρότερον ἀνακαιόμενον τόν ἀπαθῆ καί ἱερόν καί θεῖον ἔρωτα καί Θεόν (σελ. 244) ὑπερφυῶς ποθεῖ καί τήν ὑπερκόσμιον πρός τοῦτο ἕνωσιν. Κατ᾿ ἄκρας τοίνυν τούτῳ τῷ ἔρωτι ἁλούς, διερευνᾶσθαι καί περισκοπεῖν ἀναπείθεται τάς σωματικάς ἐνεργείας καί τάς ψυχικάς δυνάμεις, εἴ που περιτύχοι, δι᾿ οὗ συνουσίας ἐπιτύχοι Θεοῦ˙ ὡς οὖν τάς μέν ἀλόγους παντάπασιν εὑρίσκει ἤ μυεῖται τῶν ἐμπείρων πυνθανόμενος, τάς δ᾿ εἰ καί σύν λόγῳ πράξεις, ἀλλά πρός ὀλίγον τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἀνανευούσας, δόξαν δέ καί τήν διάνοιαν, εἰ καί λογικάς δυνάμεις, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί τοῦ ταμιείου τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἀπεζευγμένας, δηλαδή τῆς φαντασίας, ἔτι δέ καί διά τοῦ ψυχικοῦ πνεύματος ὡς ὀργάνου τελουμένας, νουνεχῶς συνιείς, ὅ καί ὁ ἀπόστολος ἐξεῖπεν, ὡς «ψυχικός ἄνθρωπος οὐ δέχεται τά τοῦ Πνεύματος», τήν ὑπέρ ταῦτα καί ὄντως νοεράν ζητεῖ καί τῶν κάτω ἀμιγῆ ζωήν, ἀκούων καί τοῦ σοφοῦ τά θεῖα Νείλου λέγοντος˙ «κἄν ὑπέρ τήν σωματικήν θεωρίαν ὁ νοῦς γένηται, οὔπω τέλεον τόν τοῦ Θεοῦ τόπον ἐθεάσατο˙ δύναται γάρ ἐν τῇ τῶν νοημάτων εἶναι γνώσει καί ποικίλλεσθαι πρός αὐτήν»˙ καί πάλιν, «καί ἐν ψιλοῖς νοήμασιν ὁ νοῦς ὤν μακράν ἀπέχει ἀπό τοῦ Θεοῦ».

Μαθών δέ καί παρά τοῦ μεγάλου ∆ιονυσίου καί Μαξίμου τοῦ πάνυ, «τόν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς νοῦν, τήν μέν ἔχειν δύναμιν εἰς τό νοεῖν, δι᾿ ἧς τά νοητά βλέπει, τήν δέ ἕνωσιν ὑπερσίρουσαν τήν τοῦ νοῦ φύσιν, δι᾿ ἧς συνάπτεται πρός τά ἐπέκεινα ἑαυτοῦ», τοῦτο δή ζητεῖ τό ἀκρότατον τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν, τήν μόνην τελείαν καί ἑνιαίαν καί πάνῃ ἀμερῆ τῶν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς, ἥ καί τούς κατά διάνοιαν ἀνελιγμούς, ἐν οἷς καί τά τῶν ἐπιστημῶν ἔχει τήν ἀσφάλειαν, σχεδόν κατά τά ἑρπυστικά τῶν ζώων ἐν συναγωγῇ καί διαιρέσει προϊόντας, καί ὁρίζει καί ἑνοποιεῖ, ἅτε εἶδος οὖσα τῶν εἰδῶν. Εἰ γάρ καί πρός αὐτούς